E&O does not cover intentional.

Would Whitaker receive a higher commission/fee from this as compared to a safer product?

Almost certainly, depending on what the safer product is.

Plus GWG and other risky companies are the ones that "sponsor" the dinners that draw customers to Michael L Whitaker and Associates firm. They did not spend this money and put on the dinners because they just like you.

Shows his character. Calls us misinformed and liars, when ask to clarify he says he will not lower himself.
Tells me two things, first he has zero prove to back up his claims that GWG was not a Ponzi scheme, second, he doesn't want to answer because he knows we are right and he missed sold GWG to seniors, claiming them to be safer than the market.

Advice
 

I would recommend a nationwide well known firm instead of local?

I have always managed our assets and am a big fan of Vanguard. My wife will contact them upon my demise and utilize their advisory services. They charge a very low 0.30% AUM fee. Granted, they will utilize Vanguard funds but this is to your advantage. They are well known for having some of the lowest expense ratio fees on the planet. You can always call and speak to a CFP. They will have no reservations confirming that they must follow the fiduciary standard. And they will never sell you high-risk Ponzi bonds.

Michael L Whitaker and Associates is sending out disclaimers about NOT acting as a Fiduciary. I assume this is being done to dissuade any clients from going through the process of filing a claim against his company or him personally. Has anyone, other than us gotten such an email? His contention is that he did not charge a maintenance fee so he did not have the obligation to act as a Fiduciary. ???

I don't think being a fiduciary has anything to do with charging a maintenance fee. But, if he advised clients about their qualified retirement account, such as an IRA, a 401K, or 403B accounts, then the advisor is required by Federal law to act as a fiduciary. This is a law created by the Department of Labor. See Post No. 33 for a link to the law's requirements.

Here is Mr. Whitaker’s problem (among others):
All ChFC and CFP are fiduciaries, regardless of who they advise. Mr. Whitaker is a ChFC. Therefore, Mr. Whitaker is a fiduciary. Mr. Whitaker can’t turn on and off his fiduciary duties like a light switch. The ChFC takes the following oath-

From the American College of Financial Services:
Becoming a Chartered Financial Consultant® involves taking the Professional Pledge, which reads:

"In all my professional relationships, I pledge myself to the following rule of ethical conduct: I shall, in light of all conditions surrounding those I serve, which I shall make every conscientious effort to ascertain and understand, render that service which, in the same circumstances, I would apply to myself."

“This commitment to a fiduciary duty shows your prospective and existing clients that you will always place their needs above your own. In a world where clients must choose between working with independent advisors, large brokerage firms or even no advisor at all, your willingness to hold sacred the best interest of your clients will help you gain a competitive advantage and secure a book of business that trusts you, depends on your expertise, and sticks around for the long term.”

I wonder what dollar amount of GWG L-bonds Mr. Whitaker personally owns.
As you can see, Mr. Whitaker likely has many dark days ahead.

Are you kidding me? Well, he should did tell my parents and their friends that he was a fiduciary. What a piece of work.
And my parents have GWG L Bonds in their IRA.

Im not defending Mr Whitaker. Perhaps he gabe wrong advise. Perhaps he sold investments that were not appropriate.

BUT…why did many of u go with him for advise?…gave u a rubber chicken dinner? Sold u a bill of goods that he was yoir buddy and best advisor?

Sorry people lost money with him….bit why go to a small investment business here.?…oh you got a meal?

Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard..etc, etc, etc….they never serve u a sandwich to get your business.

According to Michael L Whitaker, Michael L Whitaker and Associates has been in business for 38 years. Another lie is when you use it as part of your title with the intent to influence clients to use your services. He, himself may have been a carnival insurance salesman or something else, low level, in the financial industry for that many years but these jobs, certainly do not qualify you to provide advice to clients and particularly seniors who put their trust in you.

Right On - If Michael L Whitaker and Associates, and employees are going to claim the initials behind their names and in your advertising then you are stuck with providing the performance that comes along with them. There is no performance curve that you can operate on dependent on what you charge. To even send us an email suggesting that we, your clients, knew that you were not giving us advise that was in our best interest is insulting. What else would we have been expecting?

If he committed to this pledge and now he is repudiating it in writing it seems logical that, in addition to whatever action an impacted party takes, then he could have a complaint against him by the organization that grants CLU. Much like the State bar takes action against wayward Esquires (lawyers).

Perhaps MDFlyer would like to post the details of how to do this. One complaint is irritating several complaints indicate a pattern and is more likely to result in action. Finally, a company which he represents, based in part upon the CLU designation, would certainly like to know his CLU has been acted upon. Granted, this is a long shot.

For now, I am working with others on Michael L Whitaker's written confession that he was not and did not provide my wife with advice that ultimately led to the loss of many thousands of dollars. I will publish Michael L Whitaker's email in due time if this thread is still active.

Very well, I'll do this for you: CLU status can be revoked for misconduct or breaching the code of ethics. Per Investopedia

CLU is granted by the American College of Financial Services their email contact can be found here: Contact Us | The American College of Financial Services

Did anyone else that is following this thread get such a letter from Michael L Whitaker and Associates?

Interesting info shared with MD on this

Quick question: can a CHFC (Chartered Financial Consultant) have fiduciary duty on one of your accounts but not another one.
Example: Fiduciary duty on IRA but not on Individual, Joint or Trust accounts
Fiduciary duty on Managed accounts but not on Fee Base accounts
If all your accounts are with a broker without or with CHFC like Michael, would he not have the fiduciary duty on ALL your accounts he is overseeing / managing?

As I understand it, a financial advisor is not required to be a fiduciary, except when they are advising you about a retirement account. But, they can choose to be a fiduciary, in which case, they should provide their clients with a letter clearly stating that they will act as a fiducuary. Many advisors, especially those who sell insurance products, like annuities, do not want to be a fiduciary because they want to reduce the liability to their clients. Reading the information on Mr. Whitaker's website, it is pretty clear that he does not want to have a fiduciary relationship with his clients. For example, here is an excerpt from the financial planning section of his website:

"The calculations do not infer that our company, or the company providing the calculators, assumes any fiduciary duties."

In order to be. CLU, which Michael Sr. is, he has to conduct ALL business with the client as a fiduciary. I imagine it is the same for CHFC as is is granted by the same institution that grants the CLU credentials.

It is my understanding that when you use the credentials, you are saying that is what you are representing yourself as. Michael L Whitaker, in every correspondence, identifies by (cut and pasted) Thank you,

Michael L. Whitaker

Chartered Financial Consultant

The planning Calculators section is not advice from Michael L Whitaker. It is for self-use and just points to other websites that provide information of various types. I agree that Michael L Whitaker does not directly support this information but even pointing to the sites may be considered as providing financial advice. Bottom line is that his disclaimer of not providing fiduciary information from these web pages ONLY applies to this area of his information. Face to Face advice is provided as a fiduciary in all other areas since he represents his business as a Chartered Financial Consultant.

Note that Michael "J" Whitaker is only listed as a "financial advisor" on the company website, with no professional designations. Also, note that the terms chfc, clu, and cfp are all private designations that require compliance with a private code of ethics, but I don't think they are held to any specific legal advisory duties by any state or Federal laws, except the Department of Labor law for retirement accounts.

Cut an pasted from Michael L Whitaker and Associates web page : Michael L Whitaker & Associates, LLC is an independent firm with securities offered through Newbridge Securities Corporation, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment Advisory services through Newbridge Financial Services Group, Inc., an SEC Registered Investment Advisor.

FINRA at least requires agencies to be fiduciaries.

That's odd you are usually correct 123, but this time your a bit misleading here is a cut and paste from his publicly posted bio with his licenses:
Michael J. Whitaker
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Michael began in the financial services industry in 2008 after completing his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Central Florida with a business degree. The decision to get in the family business was an easy one. He started mentoring with his father, Michael L. Whitaker when he was 15 years old. He began his career with a 2 - 15 insurance license, and then went on to obtain the General Securities Series 7 certification as well as the Series 66 Fiduciary license. Michael loves solving complex problems for people using teamwork and bringing fresh ideas to the table. His Villages office is supported by two administrators and 3 associates. Michael understand the importance of planning ahead for family, as he has been blessed with three children.

Sounds like its time for Vito & Rocco to show up. They should be getting out of Coleman by Friday I think.

Seriously my heart belled for your parents. I wish I could do something or suggest something that could help. Damn, these guys that pull these stunts.

I was pointing out that Michael Whitaker, the father, is presented on the website as a CLU and CHFC, but Michael Whitaker, the son, is presented only as a financial advisor, with no designations. I don't know if this has anything to do with their fiduciary duties or not.

CASE DETAILS: The filed complaint alleges that defendants made false statements and/or concealed that: (i) Defendants intended to, and did, misappropriate GWG assets, (ii) GWG's life insurance investment business had failed, and (iii) GWG could only repay prior investors by issuing increasing amounts of securities to new investors. In essence, Defendants had turned GWG into a Ponzi scheme.
This is information from the Class Action Lawsuit.
Again I would like Michael, Mike1206 explain again how this is not a Ponzi Scheme

Do your own research on EVERYTHING, from a new floor to investing your money. Before retirement, many of our friends would urge us to go with them to a free lunch or dinner. We did attend a couple out of curiosity, but (of course) so much presented was like the old "putting lipstick on a pig", won't go into it all, most has been posted here. Decided long ago that NO ONE, not one single person no matter what they tell you, fiduciary, CFP, NO ONE cares as much about YOUR money as YOU DO. They may "care", of course, but let that sink in, no one cares as much as YOU DO about YOUR money or your welfare. That advice should always be in your mind, rather buying a golf cart, an automobile, or new windows, listen to it all, but just keep remembering the person talking is not MORE interested in your welfare that you are. When you find a person who says, "no, you don't need an whole new AC unit at all, who told you that ? Actually you just need a relatively inexpensive new --------- (fill in the blank), then you can BEGIN to trust that person...LOL ! A LOT of free lunches in the villages... it must be paying off for someone ? Mom always said, there is no "free" lunch..LOL !

It would be interesting to know if Michael L Whitaker or any of his close family owned GWG and if they did when did they get rid of it. If they dumped it before GWG failed, while Michael L Whitaker was still telling us everything was OK and to hang on to what we had.

So very TRUE, but people have to trust others to help them in matters that they don't understand or don't understand fully. You cannot go through life being distrustful or suspicious of everyone. When it is pointed out, as with Michael L. Whitaker and Associates, they need to be singled out and made examples of. The state, college, and other agencies let the public down in this case. Inaction by these agencies cost us thousands perhaps millions of dollars. With so many fillings against Michael L. Whitaker and Associates they should have shut him down before this happened.

If an advisor placed me in a high risk product after I specifically stated I was only comfortable with low risk investments, I would have immediately fired him/her. If that investment was declared a Ponzi scheme and money was lost, I would hire an attorney and depose the individual and ask all these questions. I would consider it money well spent and potentially recoverable. A formal complaint with the SEC is a must do.
I have no doubt there are honest fiduciary advisors, plumbers, electricians, etc. that put their clients’ best interests first. Unfortunately, there are always a few turds in the punch bowl. Unknowingly hiring a self-serving salesman, regardless of what product they are selling, appears to be a recurrent theme in The Villages. There are a lot of good-hearted, trusting, elderly people here that are just looking for an honest individual to help them with their needs.

I filed today...........

SEC Investor Complaint Form

Mdflyer…how did u find Mr Whitaker to begin with? Go to one of his luncheon/dinner seminars? Or did u hear of him from recommendations?

Recommendation. As I stated earlier when I started with him he was very good. It was not until years later, when, in my opinion, his income didn't live up to his lifestyle that he changed the way he put people into more and more risky investments that carry higher and higher commissions that he went from good to bad, very bad.

Why should you consider FINRA arbitration individually if you invested in GWG L bonds?
The information gathered strongly suggests that GWG deceived buyers in a number of ways. It involves lying to investors about its financial status and the risks associated with the L bonds. Many had no idea of the risk or the association to life insurance policies. To recuperate their losses, the majority of buyers file individual lawsuits with FINRA arbitration.

Possibility of financial recovery: Investors who purchased the L bonds can enhance their chances of recovering their money by pursuing individual FINRA arbitration. Those who hire their attorneys can be represented to seek compensation through FINRA arbitration from the financial services firm that sold them the GWG L bond.
Potential of fast resolution: Pursuing the case through FINRA arbitration will result in a quick resolution, which will enable investors to recoup their investment. According to FINRA, its arbitrations are typically quick compared to court cases.
Bring a suit against Emerson Equity and GWG: Besides the class action against GWG Holding, you can as well file a civil suit against the company and Emerson Equity. Evidence shows that most of the L Bond purchasers have complaints against Emerson Equity LLC. Individual investors can institute cases against GWG Holdings through FINRA arbitration.

I filed today...........

SEC Investor Complaint Form

'Classic Ponzi scheme': Angry creditors lambast CEO of Kansas asset-swap business in court records - Kansas Reflector

This is for all the clients that still trust Michael Whitaker
Brad Heppner is a crook and that is who Michael want you his client to trust.